SPECIAL ** Sensory for white bread: Gardenia VS First Choice
Firstly, Happy 2012 to one and all !! Hope 2011 was a great year for many of you. I am excited on what 2012 holds for me and I bet you are to!
Secondly, very apologetic for not updating this space as the last weeks of 2011 was a hectic one.
Thirdly, here goes my special post to welcome the new year: sensory test for bread.
It was Dairy Farm‘s RSC event on the 25th of November and Esther and I was in charge with the preparation of our department’s learning booth. We had 2 “tests” for the people who went to our booth. 1) Filling in the blanks for the procedures of the qualitative analysis of product development 2) Undergoing a sensory test between our house brand product, Cold Storage’s First Choice white bread with national brand product, Gardenia white bread.
Cold Storage’s First Choice Enriched white bread VS Gardenia Enriched white bread.
Esther and I were cutting the bread into tiny pieces so that the people participating can easily pick a piece and chew it. Honestly, we could tell which bread is from which brand just by cutting the bread into pieces. In terms of stickiness, the First Choice bread is more sticky than the Gardenia bread. Thus, the First Choice bread is harder to cut. The Gardenia bread is much more firm and the texture is way better than the Gardenia bread.
1st picture – Item A represents white bread from First Choice while item B represents white bread from Gardenia.
Although a lot of people claimed that both bread tastes alike, many people still gave their votes to item B, Gardenia.
Just a side note** The test did not mention which sample of bread belongs to which brand so as to minimize bias.
2nd picture – Enriched white bread from First Choice
3rd picture – Enriched white bread from Gardenia
Although there were more votes for Gardenia than First Choice, I personally felt that the sensory test is flawed.
1) Due to time constraints, we did not prepare biscuits and cups of water for the participants to cleanse their palates before trying the next food item.
2) Since all participants could see the results of the survey, it will definitely consists of some form of bias.
Example: If there are more participants casting their votes on item B than A, some people will follow unconsciously.
3) The event was held from 3-6PM in an air-conditional room. Hence, both types of bread will definitely be drier due to the air-conditional. This may alter the taste/texture of both types of bread to taste exactly the same. Therefore, the many remarks of both samples having the same taste.
4) The participants could talk to one another and discuss which sample they think tasted better. This is another form of bias.
Suggestions to improve the sensory test includes:
1) Introduction of biscuits and water to help participants wash their palates before trying the next sample.
2) Asking participants to write their preferred sample on a piece of paper before handing their feedback form to us.
3) Cutting fresh slices of bread when the participants come over to optimize freshness and taste.
4) Enclosing each participant into a corner of their own so that they will not have opportunity to talk to other parties regarding their feedback. However, this is hard to implement in the event as there were lots of participants and the place did not have room to cater to that many people.
I really hope I can execute more food experiments/sensory tests in time to come.
swisscheese*
